Portfolio Update: February 2019

No! Is it March already?! What happened to February? That’s how I feel. February is a few days shorter than other months, but what made the difference is that last month was so utterly uneventful – from an investment perspective that is. Well for me it was. January was about recovery, February about…well…further recovery. Everything was so calm. And that’s a good thing. I still suffer a bit from post-traumatic stress after last years see-sawing of the markets. All I need is a bit of stability in my life!

Anyway, let’s dive right into the numbers for February.

February 2019

Income

The income/gain looks like this:

Company shares

February turned out to be another great month for my company shares. We are no longer talking about recovery from the last months in 2018, but of actual expansion: Two months of solid growth with a total gain of more than $10K.

See the chart below. The misery from the last quarter of 2018 is behind us.

Capital gain, no new investments, so the capital gain as a percentage of my total investment increased (a little more than 68% now). See the chart below.

Crowdlending

As you can see in the chart below this asset has generated an income of a little more than $60.

I have been a bit too optimistic regarding how much additional funds I am able to pour into alternative assets. I will continue to expand, but at a reduced rate.

Portfolio

If we forget about my home (second pie-chart), then I have 2,4% invested in non-correlated (alternative) assets (Mintos).

Net worth

My net worth has increased in February.

Mortgage-free home

$300K

Company shares

$92,400.00

Crowdlending

$2,095.53

Liabilities

$30K

Net worth

$364.495,53

That’s an increase of $5,160 (1.4%) compared to January 2019.

Blog

My blogging rate has decreased over the last months. It is not a classic case of writer’s block, but I’ve had a lot of things going on and didn’t quite have the time nor energy to write a lot.

This doesn’t mean I will stop writing. I am in it for the long haul and will keep posting 🙂

Plans for March

My plans for March:

Keep the ESPP program running

Continue to invest on Mintos (I skipped December…and January… and February) – I promise I will removed this line if I don’t invest anything in March.

Open accounts on other crowdlending/funding platforms (I already wanted to do that in November….and December…and January…and February…but lacked the funds). Same thing here. If I don’t do actually manage to do it I will have to stop fooling myself and remove this line next time around.

6 thoughts on “Portfolio Update: February 2019”

Mintos is so easy (you basically only have to logon once per month to check the progress, right? 😛 ) So if you dont have the time, don’t sweat it – just stick to Mintos for now, and be happy with whatever you get out of it 😉

Yes $100K is within reach and reaching it should trigger a little party… maybe I treat myself to a new bottle of expensive whiskey.. to brace for the next downturn 😉

I still have a long way to go of course, but the $100K line is some sort of psychological barrier . Breaching it will make me feel good!

True, I will keep rolling with Mintos… not much effort required. I struggle a bit with finding the additional funds to expand the alternative assets corner of my portfolio. I keep falling into the ‘I have a bit of money, but let’s do something fun with it as I invest so much already’ trap… 😉 Well, it’s not really a trap… it is just about keeping a little money in my ‘fun fund’…

Good to see that your portfolio is back on track! Nice increase on those company shares indeed. It looks like you will cross the magical $100k mark in a couple of months if it keeps the same direction. As they say, “The first $100,000 is a bitch”, so it should become quicker afterwards 🙂

Thanks! Crossing the $100K mark is a nice achievement. More importantly, I am ahead of the projected value for reaching FIRE in xx years. But I shouldn’t get carried away. These are non-divided paying shares and this month’s increase could disappear as snow before the sun. But I am taking the risk…. for now 🙂

Yes a it of market stability (well growth really) is nice isn’t it?!?! Having said which I think that we will all need to get more used to it. Even though I know in my head that we should expect a market downturn every three years or so we had a long bull run so last year was a shock!

The nice thing about blogging is that you can always pick it back up even if you’ve been quiet for a while. People subscribe through twitter, blog readers or directly so they will see your new posts when they come out. Looking forward to it!

Thanks Caveman! I will definitely keep posting… and catch up on my reading and commenting posts of fellow personal finance bloggers.
Yeah we should mentally brace ourselves for the next downturn. It will come, sooner or later. The best way to do that is to stay the course and look beyond short term gains or losses. I am very happy with January and February, but it is 100% unrealized… and could disappear again. What is more important to me is that I am ahead of some of my most conservative projections. And as long as I am ahead of that, I shouldn’t let monthly gains or losses affect my mood too much. Easier said than done though 😉